Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Rainbow Jello and Pudding Recipe

Rainbow Jello

This is a childhood favorite recipe that my Mother would make on special occasions. Being from Utah, everyone always assumes that we love Jello, I mean, when the Winter Olympics were here they made collectable green jello pins with the Olympic symbol on them. That being said, I can't stand Jello, I never make it and if I do eat it, its only to be polite, unless its made Rainbow style! I always thought growing up that I only liked it because it was beautiful, and im drawn to pretty things. However, once my Mother told me what was actually in it, it all came together quickly for me...

What you need...

6 packages of different colored Jello (I followed the layers of the cake so it would match so I did purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red.)
6 Cups of Vanilla Ice Cream (now you know why I loved it, go figure!)
6 Cups of Hot Water.
1 container of Cool Whip

Simple really, all you do is follow the instructions on the back of the box, but instead of adding a cup of cold water, you add a cup of ice cream. Heres what I changed though, since I wanted the colors to be intense, and it muddied out the purple a lot, I added 1/2 cup of ice cream and a 1/2 cup of ice. That way the color was slightly more intense. The reason why this is so useful when making Rainbow Jello is that it help's it set up faster, and it tastes a lot better. When your doing six layers of Jello it gets slightly tedious waiting to make the next layer. But if you want the colors to stay intense, just do 1 cup of hot water and 1 cup of ice. Make sure you put in a glass bowl, and let each layer set up before you add the next. Then right before you serve it put on the cool whip. I pipped mine in the cups so it would look better, but you can always just put a dollop on it, or spread it out and make it look like fluffy clouds!

Jello Pudding Cups

This is a recipe my Mom made up while I was brain storming with her about this party. We made them in Parfait cups so it took a lot of Pudding, so depending on what size of glass your using is how much pudding you will need. In the end it ended up being too much for one person, but everyone loved it so I highly suggest trying it.

For the pudding, just follow the directions on the back of the box, make all the puddings in separate containers. I added food coloring to one of them to make it orange, but you can add any color you want to it. I just liked the combination of the soft orange, green, cream, and black together. I was going to add a little orange zest to the Vanilla pudding since it ended up being the orange layer, but I ran out of time. I think it would taste really good though and freshen the dish up.

Next, take all the Oreos, this is the tedious part by the way, and separate all the cream from the cookies, toss them in a blender a few at a time, and blend them crumbs. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, which is why the little nick on the Rainbow cake drives me nuts, but if you dont want to do this step, you can crush up the oreos and put them in, but I cant stand having chunks of Oreos, so i spent FOREVER blending them to a nice fine powder. Place aside in a bowl and wait to assemble.

Last is the topping. Place the whipping cream in your kitchen aide and set on high until it forms soft peaks, add in 2 T. Powdered Sugar, and 1 T. Vanilla and whip until blended. Next, add in the Cream Cheese and whip until blended together. The cream cheese adds a great flavor to it, and makes it stiffer so it can be pipped. You can also die it a color if you want more color on it, but i liked it white. Add the whipped topping into a pipping bag and get ready to assemble your dish.

Start with any layer of pudding you want, then add a Tablespoon of Oreo, then the next flavor, then a Tablespoon of Oreo. Repeat steps until you get to the top. As you can see in my picture, I ran out of oreo, if that happens just layer your layers on top... I ran out of time otherwise i would have made up more! At the end pipe a little whipped topping on the top and your ready to go! If your not going to serve them right away, refrigerate them until its time for the party!

These are two of the simplest recipes I have ever made, and yet the both tasted amazing, and really added to the color scheme!

That last photo of the jello parfait is just perfect. I am with you! I am not a jello fan, probably not a true Utahn! When I would be pregnant and people would bring jello with their meals my kids would say, "Oh no, not another jello!" It just isn't a part of their family culture. I think they would love this striped one though! We will have to try it.